MBB: NEWMAC

[amh63]

Back again.  Seems that Amherst's big man Kaasilla and even star pg was under the weather a little and had to be rested.  Lasell players did cause some early problems with a full court press...until Amherst figured it out and made Lasell pay for it with easy baskets.  Holmes,  the reserve big man, played 24 minutes and had 21 points and 9 boards.  Barrise, Amherst's 3-point shooter (he had five 3's against WPI last year) had a double-double....led the team with 12 boards!  SID write-up provides the particulars...on the Amherst website.
It should be interesting this Friday as Amherst will face undefeated Springfield at Springfield.
Oh yes, congrats to RIC and WPI and the rise of MIT into the top ten.   Amherst plays RIC later in the season....at an interesting time since RIC usually gets better as the season progresses......as others have pointed out.   If all goes well, Amherst may yet meet WPI again and even MIT in the post season.  Got my fingers crossed for that to happen.

[Hugenerd]

This is heady stuff fellow NEWMAC fans!  You think we could line up against NESCAC and not get blown out - team for team?

They still certainly have the most dominant top 3 in the nation but maybe the gap isn't as far apart as I would have thought.............getting ahead of myself I am sure -  but sure would be fun going into the tourney this year with a real chance to win a couple of games +.   

Looking forward to heading up to Worcester twice in December to see the boys play Fitchburg and then West Conn.

Rankings done by one of the seasoned posters on the multiregion boards has the NEWMAC as the 3rd strongest conference in the country so far this season, ahead of the NESCAC and just behind the CCIW and WIAC:

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/conference-ratings

[WPI89]

Pretty cool Nerd - thanks for sharing!

[ECSUalum]

Ditto from here.  Nerd, I copied the web site over onto the LEC thread giving you and James Eddy a credit.

Thanks again!

[WPI89]

Nerd et al - on the same site is a ranking of individual teams nationwide - not sure what the criteria are - maybe Pat C can chime in?  Amherst is 2 in the country followed by none other than WPI - must be a "strength of victory" thing? 

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/top-75

[WPI89]

Here is actually the link to the explanation of the rankings:  https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/explanation-of-ranking-system

Don't have time now but will read later........

[Hugenerd]

Nerd et al - on the same site is a ranking of individual teams nationwide - not sure what the criteria are - maybe Pat C can chime in?  Amherst is 2 in the country followed by none other than WPI - must be a "strength of victory" thing? 

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/top-75

This is simply an RPI-type ranking, like the computer polls in the BCS.  Based on their record, strength of schedule, and margin of victory in those matchups, WPI has the 3rd highest RPI in the country right now. I'm sure there are some small deviations from a true RPI, and other computer polls, but thats pretty much what it is.

They also have predictions:

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/dec-1-2011-predictions

MIT is favored by 20 tonight (at Newbury), WPI is favored by 23 (at Lasell), Babson is favored by 22 (at Emerson), Clark is favored by 7 (at Worcester State), and Wheaton is a 2 point underdog (hosting Tufts).

[augie_superfan]

Nerd et al - on the same site is a ranking of individual teams nationwide - not sure what the criteria are - maybe Pat C can chime in?  Amherst is 2 in the country followed by none other than WPI - must be a "strength of victory" thing? 

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/top-75

Glad to see there are people visiting the site.  Just to be clear, this isn't affliated with D3Boards of D3Hoops in any way, just a little project of my own that I decided to share.

As Hugenerd said, it is similar to the various computer models that are out there....the Massey ratings, Jeff Sagarin's ratings, etc.  The main idea being that it looks at who you play, where you play them and what the outcome of the game was in both win vs. loss and also scoring margin.  By using only this input, I am then able to create predictions for future games and also give a prediction of the scoring margin.

Keep checking the website often as I try to at least put out predictions for the current day's games everyday.  If I have a few extra minutes I try to update the webpage with the updated rankings also.  Otherwise, I try to update everything on there about every other day with the new rankings.

I'm a Midwest guy (Augustana alum) so it's nice for me to be able to look at the rankings and get an idea for how comparable teams from across the country are and I think this system does a decent job at that.

[Hugenerd]

MIT beats Newbury tonight, 93-50. Newbury didn't seem that bad coming in, they were 3-2 and only lost to Tufts by 6, but MIT gets the blowout. Speaking of Tufts, they beat Wheaton by 17 tonight. WPI, Babson, and Clark all had blowout wins.  The NEWMAC is now a collective 36-5 on the year.

By the way, just saw a boxscore of the MIT game. Hollingsworth had 33 on 14-21 shooting, 14 boards, and 2 blocks. Tasman had another double-double with 12 and 10. Kates led the team with 8 assists and Karraker made 5 3s for 15 points. MIT was +26 on the boards.

[WPI89]

Augie - really fun site - should stir some great debate throughout the season - I am sure Nerd is thrilled right now that WPI would be favored by 8 (neutral site) over MIT currently......................

Thanks for creating/maintaining and giving D3 basketball some love.................................

I know this is now the instant information age but I wonder if any of the players on these teams look at any of this - would have been fun a million tears ago when I was playing to have these types of sites - of course a lot less enjoyable when we were losing!

Clearly the D1 athletes are inundated with info and images daily - fun for our guys to get some publicity - even if it is only the same 50 people on these sites consistently!

[Hugenerd]

Augie - really fun site - should stir some great debate throughout the season - I am sure Nerd is thrilled right now that WPI would be favored by 8 (neutral site) over MIT currently......................

Thanks for creating/maintaining and giving D3 basketball some love.................................

I know this is now the instant information age but I wonder if any of the players on these teams look at any of this - would have been fun a million tears ago when I was playing to have these types of sites - of course a lot less enjoyable when we were losing!

Clearly the D1 athletes are inundated with info and images daily - fun for our guys to get some publicity - even if it is only the same 50 people on these sites consistently!

I am cheering for all the NEWMAC squads right now.  The better the conference does as a whole out-of-conference, the better it is for every team in the conference.  I hope WPI wins all their non-conference games by 30 points and is ranked #1 in the RPI poll, that will only help MITs SOS and their RPI rating as well.  MIT and WPI will have 2-3 matchups this year to sort out who is the better team on the court, so I'm not worried about who would be a favorite on paper.

[amh63]

As previously posted, did watch the WPI vs Lasell game last night for a length.  The video feed was clear and on during the time, I watched.  Several comments are now provided.  I did not feel at any time that WPI would not win.  It was a question of by how much.  Lasell did not have any players to counter WPI'S big players inside and or on the boards.  Lasell did play with heart and intensity and caused turnovers/steals and at times fought hard on the boards. When Lasell's outside game went South, they went inside and for the most part was stopped by the bigger WPI players.   WPI seems to have added another big man into the rotation...#55.  He brings alot of energy into the game but his inside game needs more time to develop, IMO.
I do believe that WPI will give many of the NESCAC teams a good game, if not a whipping.  However,.....I found something that, though interesting, would bother me as a WPI supporter.  In the second half, WPI wanted to run up and down the court with Lasell.  Why would they do that....to allow Lasell, IMO, dictate the pace and play of the game.  Was it to see if WPI can play that type of game?  WPI was successful last night because they had the bigger players.  When Lasell raced down the court and drove to the basket, their shots were blocked and the rebounds lost.  When WPI ran the court and dished off to the big men, no one could prevent the baskets. WPI did execute the dish off play well at times, but I believe it will not be an effective offense against the top teams in the NESCAC.  Amherst, Midd., Williams and maybe Bowdoin and even Hamilton have the inside big men to counter.
If any of the WPI posters who watched the game think otherwise....please post.  At least give me an opinion on why WPI's coach would play Lasell's game.....other than a learning experience and to see if they could.  I believe that the stronger better team should control the game and style of play at all times.

[Hugenerd]

WPI typically plays a lot of players and tries to run.

[mass_d3fan]

Amh63

I too watched the game online, when the feed wasn't freezing up.  Wish I could give you some deep insight into the mind of Coach Bartley, but alas, not sure anyone can.  HN is right that he seems to love to want to throw a lot of bodies out there and run.  Personally, I have no problem at all with running when the opportunity is there, but I believe you build your offense from the inside out, especially when you have your best player on the inside. We are beginning to see the blending of a combination similar to Robinson & Carr last year.  Coppola is off to a great start and is probably the best penetrator Engineers have.  He is going to have a ton of assists if he keeps driving and looking for Carr and the other bigs.  The big question mark on him is more on defensive end, especially when WPI begins to play teams with better guards.

As far as style of play goes, I am not sure Bartley has had a center like Carr before.  His teams have mostly been dominated by shooting guards and small forwards.  Those guys normally played more minutes than they seem to want to play Carr.  06-07, Cain (36.2 and Coleman(31.2) played big minutes.  I would want him in game as much as possible to be ready to play teams like RIC, West,Conn, MIT, Springfield, etc. I would want to make the bigs of these teams have to defend him and see if he can get them into foul difficulties.  He is a very good passer and already has more than half the number assists he had all last year in just 5 games this season.  Past WPI centers barely played 20 mpg and were never really a factor in the offensive scheme.

There is no doubt that Coppola is the heir-apparent to the Flynn, Cain, Kirkland & Robinson line of scoring guards. Ryan Kolb is developing into a very good power forward with a good 3 pt shot. David Brown is very good defender and sets up his teammates very well. #55 is Jameel Galloway who has stepped his play up in a big way this season. He does need to improve his inside skills and learn to stay down more defensively, but he does bring high energy when he is in there.  If the Engineers figure out  a rotation that keeps their best players on the court for more minutes, they will much better prepared to get back to the NEWMAC title game and perhaps make a deeper run into the NCAAs than last season.

WPI needs to stay focused tomorrow and Tuesday and not look ahead at that RIC game.  I hope to get to Becker tomorrow.  I want to see how they are looking this year too.

I see Springfield pushed Amherst tonight.  One thing is certain, the conference play this year is going to be something to see.  No games can taken for granted.  Should be great matchups every game night in January & February!

[Hugenerd]

Not a good night for the NEWMAC as they go 0-2. Springfield, despite playing not their best, was able to stay with Amherst and had some opportunities when they were within 1-2 possessions late in the 2nd half. Hopefully they get it done in their other tough games over the next week.

Lots of conference teams in action today.